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Had the rare occasion of a night on the town this past weekend. Thanks to the lucky fortunes of the wifey we were off to dinner and a show all expenses paid…sort of. Her luck of the draw garnered tickets to Legally Blonde and a gift certificate for Milestones. I of course took this occasion to sample from the brew menu, especially when the waitress pointed out

that domestic pints were only 5 bucks (I am not really sure if that is a deal though). A quick scan yielded nothing new to try but several that had yet to be posted to the blog. I went with a draft fave – Alexander Keith’s Pale Ale. In addition to having some of the best commercials going this is a very good beer and staple on the Canadian bar scene (for my international audience). It came, was cold and added to my sausage ravioli and shared apps led to a very filling meal. Better than the beer was the company as we chatted about where we might land to celebrate an anniversary and a break from the kids in the future.

A little more about Alexander Keith’s: For those from around here (Canada) we all know you can ditch the Alexander part when ordering. The most popular varietal is Pale Ale but a scan of the website indicates there is also a Premium White, Red Amber Ale, Light Ale and Dark Ale…who knew. My guess is that those are only found in the beer’s native habitat for Nova Scotia. I guess I will have to visit, haven’t been out east in a while.

P.S. The play was fun and I think I saw someone drinking a beer in the party scene.

Other than good brew there seems to be a theme evolving here – good friends. I am not surprised in the least.

The most recent sipping took place on Saturday night when school chum D (for his protection) came over to the homestead. It has been months since we got together (not suprising since we have a combined 5 kids under the age of 5) so I gave him a tour of the new casa and we sat down for a beer in the kitchen – pure simplicity. I had two varietals in the fridge, the first was Steam Whistlea local brew with a classic green bottle the other was little known Black Oak Pale Ale from just a ways down the road in Oakville – I had tried it before (pre-blog). D chose the Black Oak, I grabbed a Steam Whistle and away we went. Topics discussed: parenting, lack of sleep, LeBron, the Toronto Raptors and possibly a mention of a finance prof who seemed focus more on getting to the pub than his students. Before we knew it it was close to midnight and time to shut down this rager.

Back to the beer – Steam Whistle Pilsner. This is a very good beer, although I must admit I didn’t know it was a Pilsner until I checked the website. It goes down easy and although it is not trying to do anything gimmicky it seems better than its peers. What I also love about Steam Whistle is their branding. They serve only one varietal, have an easy to remember look, fun delivery vehicles and support many local events. They have only been around for about a decade but I think they have a great future in front of them.

P.S. They do offer tours which considering how close I am I should definitely check out. If I do I will totally bring you along.

Went out for wings last night with a couple of best buds, for anonymity sake lets call them J & M. It has been a while since we all got together and after a flurry of emails we agreed (sort of) on Duffs on Bayview. This is only my second time at Duffs and first at this location. They claim to serve authentic Buffalo Wings. Whether this is true or not I will leave to the experts but I have to say they are definitely very tasty, although I prefer drier wings.

As part of a combo, J and I split a mini pitcher (and I do mean mini – it barely filled two glasses) of Rickard’s White. When it arrived at the table there was an orange wedge for each glass so at least this first beer blogging experience was a little beyond the norm.

This seems like a very good summer beer as it goes down easy, especially with that hint of orange (Gee I hope my analysis will improve as this blog progresses). All in all it was pretty good even though I was mocked for palming my glass due to sticky fingers. “Forgive me for being thirsty and wanting to spare a few napkins”. The Rickards White was gone before I knew it as the conversation drifted from job satisfaction, city politics and of course fantasy baseball. Before we knew it the bill was served it was split evenly which is what you do when you are with great friends…trust me it will all even out in the end (I hope).

Of note: Rickard’s White is one of many Molson/Coors products and according to the website is served with a wedge of orange to bring out the “refreshing notes of citrus”. Whether those notes exist or not I can not say but I love when things are out of the ordinary like that. I hope that through this blog I will discover more along these lines.

As I reflect on my life since launching this blog I noticed it is a little dry…as in I have not had a beer since. I am looking forward to an evening out with some good friends tomorrow but I also realize that if I want this blog to have any type of following I will also need to include some content not generated by my own sips and gulps. I have not abandoned my pursuit but wish to inform you all (I know there isn’t a you all yet) that I will also post about things I find interesting that are related to the topic of beer.

Reading between the lines I have set up some Google alerts and will fill you in when I think something interesting is afoot.

There are so many blogs out there so I hope this one will not be greeted with the following comment “Oh great another one”. I made the decision to start my very own blog only recently and chose the subject matter because I thought it would be fun and would only require the sort of periodic updating that my busy life can handle.

I am very fond of the saying that “Life is too short to drink the same beer over and over again”. I caught myself expressing this recently and I thought it would be a fun endeavour to see take this to the limit by trying to find out if there are actually a million types of beer out there. To consume them all would likely make me a raging alcoholic as well as broke, homeless and familyless but I think the journey could be a fun one…so here I go.

I hope that all of you out there will join me. Feel free to make suggestions on where to find an interesting brew. I promise to listen, swig it if possible and report back.

Oh the adventure we can have and the tales I shall share. Most will be about the beer but don’t be shocked if there is a little personal commentary now and again. I just can’t help it.